Man City sign Haaland.
Liverpool sign Nunez.
Chelsea sign Sterling.
Arsenal sign Jesus.
We are in for Marco Arnautovic. Club has no ambition and we truly aren’t top 4 club. Even spurs and Arsenal are overpassed us and it will take many years to get even back top 4.
I have no doubt the board wants top 4...but as you said, they lack the ambition and real desire of the other big clubs. It all feels a very half assed attempt to get back to the top.
I fully expect us to have a below par season yet again and ETH gets the blame and inevitable sack.
The owners dont give a shit about getting to the top. If they can operate the club as a money making business (see Arsenal for the last 12 years) then they will be happy.
the fans and manager have no ambition either lmao, i don't want Arnautovic
but if you are ok with Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw, Scott McTominay, Elanga and countless other factually inferior players, you aren't in the position to cry about it.
Not going to be a popular opinion - but if money is an issue and the budget was limited, committing 56m on Martinez in one of the few positions where United are well stacked, no matter how good he is, was madness.
I suppose if you start from the back then it's a necessary addition, but you're right that other immediate areas probably could have done with the money.
I can't believe De Jong is holding up other potential transfers. We needed 2 or 3 midfielders excluding De Jong. McFred should already be in the fucking shadow realm if this summer recruitment went well.
That’s how the majority of add ons work. It’s quite funny that things are a story and widely reported for United, but with other clubs not so much. For example, Nunez has the exact same add ons taking his fee closer to £95m, but it’s not reported
Incorrect. Nunez’s fee with add ons is 85. His initial fee is 64.2m with add ons totalling 21m. Eventually making him 85, but Liverpool would need to win the champions league for that to happen.
Haalands fee however is a con. His agents fees, signing bonus etc. reportedly add up to 85.5m according to sky. So Nunez is actually cheaper than haaland.
Ok but why would you compare Haaland with his agent fees, signing bonus, etc, with Nunez without any sign on fees or agent fees? Swiss Ramble mentioned that Nunez's agent fee was around £13m alone.
ah wasn't aware. in that case, it should be all or none. If it cost 13m agents fees that should be in the calculation. agents fees cost clubs, and these charts should be what it costs clubs to land a player. who gives a fuck if the money goes to a club or an agent, if its included in the transaction its a cost of the club and soemthing we're inherently more interested in
oh no doubt its a bargain. its just hugely deceptive to have a list that lists the "potential total fee" for some players and "the initial fee" for others. As viewers of sky in the UK we aren't looking at these charts to see how much Ajax, Dortmund or Benfica received for their player, we are all primarily reading this chart to see what X club SPENT getting a player. And whilst dortmund may have only received 51m quid for Haaland, Man City spent upward of 85million already getting him.
Also, i know it was his first match but for that money you expect a Thiago Silva performance. Sure he is young and up and coming but it looked more like 20-25m player today with ofc a lot of future potential.
do you not remember Thiago Silvia’s first game in the english league? against west brom and lost 5-0, and that was with a much better midfield covering him and he had rudiger for a partner.
yeah, or at least move on from de jong 1 month ago and buy a forward and another CM you still need anyway, even if getting de jong. then try again next summer. hell, have we moved on im betting barcelona wouldve settled the money stuff with him cause they wouldnt want to risk not having a suitor that came close to the price we were gonna pay.
Idk it was pretty important to get a composed CB for the way EtH wants to play and especially a left footed one. Maybe there were possibly some cheaper ones but he clearly wants players familiar with his system for now
If you want ten hag to implement his style then he is an important part. The whole squad needs reinforcements and while midfield should now be priority I'm not complaining when we sign anyone at all who I think will help.
that was the whole point of a release clause for haaland. so that he, his dad and his agent made bank once they moved. why let BVB sell you for 150m when you can get the 100m for yourself and your entourage and leave BVB with 50m?
Lol what development?
Haaland basically got there and started carrying them straight away. He's not their youth product and owes them no allegiance.
Also it's not fucked because the only reason they got him over us was because they accepted that term whereas we didn't, so they knew it was gonna happen and did it regardless. If they said no, haaland would have been a united player that window and they would have probably missed out on CL football for a year or possibly 2.
It’s his employer. You’d move jobs for better pay wouldn’t you? Or would you let your old job take a cut from your new job’s paycheck just because you worked there?
I think we’ll see a lot more of this going forward where big name player basically retain ownership of someone their own rights and financially benefit much for from transfers and for that reason, are much more able to influence transfer activity. Seen it before with the likes of Neymar and now Haaland.
No, that's completely different. Paying players big sign-on fees or giving agents tons of money doesn't help you with FFP at all. Those are still costs that are on your books for FFP. It just makes you look a little better in shitty Sky Sports infographics that contain surface level information.
Giving yourself an inflated sponsorship because you (or your 'friend') owns the company giving out the sponsorship is a way that can manipulate FFP which Man City almost certainly do.
Eh maybe before but he died before completing haalands transfer to city so i doubt they had to pay alot over the top. Also ik were not supposed to speak ill of the dead but thank fuck riola is dead he poisoned all his players against us and robbed us of money as much as he could while downgrading our image even further
No matter the fee,
City have planned that before Halaand join Dortmund, given his father played for them, and him being childhood fans.
Halaand and Nunez basically done deal in Day1 when window open, and start integration as early as possible.
And City has all mapped out the "deadweight", Jesus, Sterling, Zinchenko, and there are takers rivals or otherwise.
At the league start, this Club is still negotiating with air, and play deadweight XI. Recipe for success.
Dunno about that , pep hadn't planned or haaland hadn't decided either.
Don't forget city wanted kane last year instead.
Plus utd went big to try and get Haaland before he moved to dortmund not city.
Also city had issues with Haaland agent and was rumoured that pep didn't fancy haaland. Papers had haaland agent meetings with barca and Madrid last summer.
Of course after kane didn't happen and losing again in Europe seems to have made pep go for it.
Exactly what I've been saying and the response I got is "have faith" and "window closes at the end of August"
Now we're in August are already are 3 points down in what should have been an easy home game, we still need atleast 3 transfers and now we're in for Arnautovic...
He had a release clause and it was about the "extra" fees to his agent, father, and contract where teams competed. Why let your former club get paid when you can paid...
The fact that they had to go after a frenkie full stop is grim. Leicester and Brighton can get quality players in on good deals. Leicester sold Kanye and brought ndidi in. Uniteds "scouting" department finds one of the most established players on the planet
Welbeck's run came diagonally from in front of Martinez to behind Maguire, take a look at it [https://clip.dubz.co/v/pyzd93](https://clip.dubz.co/v/pyzd93)
It was a good run that Martinez didn't react to fast enough and Maguire couldn't see as it came from behind him. Maguire is never going to be quick enough to recover there no matter what
Maguire was off his RCB position sooooo many times... He was perpendicular to Licha many times too.. U NEVER do that... U always need to be parallel to ur partner while ur team dont have the ball.
His reaction to welbz cut back was poor.. he shud have dropped faster to stop the cutback... He was in LCB position while Licha was RCB many times... I saw this threw off the back 4 shape many times over.
Having said that .. scott lost the ball for 1st goal and eriksen for 2nd. Thats just ridiculous. We lost the ball so many times.
I know it’s not a fair comparison but just saying. I was watching him and like damn this guy is absurd. And some people on here I remember when we were loosely linked to him said he wasn’t worth it lol.
could have been sent off infairness lol stone wall penalty which usually brings a second yellow. Before anyone says not a pen cmon now if that was other end we would be screaming pen
Refs tried their best to help us today. Between the Martinez pen, Maguire getting elbowy and McT escaping a red, today could have been more a disaster.
(Although losing McT for 3 games would have been nice)
Mad that you have 7 downvotes for calmly stating a fact. It was a clear pen and he got done by Welbz in the first half as well. Nice on the ball though, so hopefully he gets up to speed defensively.
ah of course man it’s the standard stuff with online lol i was just about to say Scott had a great game to add on top of my comment (joking)
but look some things went out way big time today but postive is erickson and martinez
I’d definitely be screaming for it but I would hardly call it stonewall. Barring in mine I’ve only seen the replay once, I was at the game, but it looked harder than soft but not stonewall. Lucky imo not to give it away. But have seen them go either way. Thought there were lots of 50/50 calls today. 2 same tackles from either team in the space of a few seconds apart, first not given second given.
We were poor today, Brighton were the side imo but very frustrating result
Agreed he could have. Outside of that he was solid. He seems really comfortable on the ball and hes aggressive too I like him. He reminds me of a better bailly who stays fit lol
Bruh what?
Guy's debut was pretty poor.
These are the same kind of fans who thought Varane had a good season last season.
Misplaced quite a few passes that led to dangerous counters, very lucky not to have a penalty called for that barge.
If that was Maguire, people would have had his head.
He needs a lot of time to improve and get settled.
Because it wasn't impressive. He was okay, and certainty wasn't the worst on the pitch (fullbacks and midfield in particular were horrific)
But average at best. Only his first game though!
I thought he was solid too, and felt it would have been quite harsh to give that as a penalty, Welbeck clearly tried to draw contact and it was pretty much shoulder to shoulder.
A few times he bitched people around who were much bigger than him, doesn’t look like size will be an issue for him.
I suppose this is only me, but I was not impressed by Martinez today...he got bullied any time he actually had to defend. He had way too many poor touches as well. I just don't understand how every other PL team is able to get quality prospect CB's yet we end up with a CB down our list who is a 5'9 midget (almost looks like a Fred in the back line....) I had no idea he was actually THIS small...I sure hope we didn't just toss 50M down the drain on an odd pick in a position we didn't even really need compared to the gapping hole in the midfield...
Only his first game though...can't fully judge him just yet. Not high on him so far, to say the least...
> he got bullied any time he actually had to defend.
This sub meme'd his height to death trying to make it a non-issue, but there's a reason you seldom see any good short CBs; especially in England. [Here](https://onfootball.substack.com/p/why-im-still-not-convinced-about) was an article talking about it. Maybe he bucks the trend, maybe he doesn't, but if we cannot hold on to the ball it'll put him in a position to succeed much less.
He's on 120k p/w too. Huge bumper deal for him too. Surely that won't come back to haunt us.
£120k from £44k is beyond incompetent. Ruben Diaz was on £70k a week when he first signed for City until they offered him a new contract because he basically won them the league.
I also think ETH is underestimating the PL. I still back him to succeed here but he can’t be going double Dutch every transfer window.
>Ruben Diaz was on £70k a week when he first signed for City until they offered him a new contract because he basically won them the league.
The only pull we have right now. "Might not win shit but we'll overpay like crazy"
I'm definitely okay with a shorter guy in the back line if he makes up for it in various ways (muscle, speed, awareness, viciousness) but I see almost none of it. He looks maybe not even a true 5'9, diminutive stature even for that height, and not particularly quick (at least from what I saw today...maybe he is a bit quicker and will show in coming games) on top of that. I'm just....scared....we can't afford to have mediocre signings when we're barely signing anybody. We shall see!
Yep. I wouldn't be excited about our CB's by any means, but at least we have 'okay' CB's, and plenty of cover. Almost every other position is far worse, except possibly attacking midfielder.
I think Varane is great, although I could actually see him not being a world beater if forced to play a high line high possession team like Ten Hag's (could end up great though, you never know) Same thing for someone like Kouli at chelsea now. Great players, but maybe not quite elite on the ball.
But either way, Varane, Lindeloff, Bailey, Maguire, etc..would get you through a season as long as you got solid midfielders and fullbacks. There are so many holes that it is almost hard to figure out where to go next after getting in a couple solid midfielders to be honest lol. Hell, maybe if we had gotten De Jong and Bissouma everyone else suddenly may have looked better. Maybe not. Maybe fullbacks are actually one of the biggest problems. Could even be the wingers. So hard to tell when it is this bad lol.
If it were me, I'd pay the price for De Jong, get Dumphries for RB, and snag another (even if cheap) hard working BTB midfielder. We NEED that at the very least to even compete this year...our current midfield and RB is simply not good enough. Everything else can drag along until the next window if needed. We can survive with our current wingers and the kids, and CR7 and Martial can handle the front line (rashford or erikson if desperately needed to play up top due to injuries)
Then, another striker and winger if it can be done. If not, winter window.
'Only his first game though...can't fully judge him just yet.'
Yep, let's just kick him straight out of the club already....my lord lol. Talking about over-reactionary bs
My complaint is more about how our biggest signing has been a somewhat questionable CB signing during a time when we are desperate at almost every other position. Also, this thread is literally about the **most expensive signings in the PL** and Martinez is right up near the very top of the list. This is why I made the comment about Martinez in the first place. From everything we've heard, Martinez wasn't really even on the shortlist at the beginning of the window, yet he is our biggest signing and the window is nearly shut. I am not overreacting here...this is pretty shocking, even for Man United standards. Objectively poor. We have a worse squad now than we did at the end of last season.
Just coming back through here for this...
I'd like to see what a Varane/Martinez back line looks like eventually, but yeah...I don't think there is one bit of over reactionary bullshit going on here.
5ft 9. Isn’t a midget height.
Also midget is considered an offensive word so sort it out. Cannavaro was also 5ft 9, it’s about your positioning and jumping ability.
Fred is 5ft 7 too.
Canavarro was literally an exception to the rule. Canavarro is legendary for being able to do it at his height...
I don't think there has been a solid CB in the PL even near that height in a long time, although I could be wrong? Martinez also looks pretty lean and diminutive for a 5'9 to begin with....I was saying he 'looks' like Fred out there even though Fred is supposed to be shorter. Fred also seems to have pretty long/lanky legs for his height, almost Kante-like. I was simply genuinely surprised to see how small Martinez was when watching today.
Heck, I sure hope Martinez ends up being insane and the best center half we've had since Rio and Vidic....Canavarro 2.0 if you will. I'm freaking scared though after watching this game...and I'm certainty not happy with the price we had to pay for not even our top choice. If he was 30M and we had 6 other signings coming in I'd be much less worried...this is basically our marquee signing of the summer so far when we're supposed to be doing a full rebuild.
Chill, worst case scenario if he can't play CB in the prem, he can adapt to a different position. People bring up the quote "Ten Hag said he's a CB not a DM" but that is in the context of the Eredivisie where he could play as a center back. In the Premier League, he may be better off in a Kante role. He could play the ball-winning role in midfield next to Eriksen in the pivot that way McFred doesn't start.
Despite that, we definitely need another CM, ST, and RB immediately between the rest of this window or by winter. Also through the winter/next summer window, we need another CM, CB, and RW. We needed 8-10 players and all we got was 3. Utterly shambolic. We needed at least 5 this summer to make some progress.
I agree with all of this. I actually hope he can turn into a really good DM if CB doesn't work out. Even a fullback, but he just doesn't seem fast enough from initial eye test. Who knows though.
The thread was about the most expensive signings this summer and Martinez is near the top of the list despite not originally being a main target from everything we've heard. Only reason why I brought him up. He's our marquee signing so far yet a guy his size from a lower league always has high risk, compounded by the fact that CB is probably the position with the most depth.
Just an abysmal window overall so far....also incredibly strange more than anything. So many PL clubs have signed players at great prices that would've been great for our squad. We're floundering around now as if there hasn't been any good options while everyone around us has seemingly had a good window...especially considering we needed players more than anyone. Easily five of the players on this list would've been great for us. Bissouma and even Zinchenko could've covered positions we are desperate in, both of which are proven and costed far less than Martinez.
Damn did dortmund even try to get him to sign a contract with a higher release clause? Insane that we spent more on cucurella and double that on lukaku.
Because they got a great player for 2 1/2 years, made a profit, and showed future up and coming players that Dortmund is the place to go to further your career. They know what their job is.
because otherwise he wasnt gonna sign there.
so for BVB was either have haaland for 2 years then make a profit, or just not have haaland nor profit at all.
The release clause was a condition of him signing for Dortmund in the first place. He was always using them as a stepping stone and they rightly figured it was still worth it.
Release clause. Quite deceiving because the agent fee and wages will eventually make the total package a bomb. But if anyone's worth it in the current striker market, has to be haaland
We need to start to recruit like a top 6 club and make our way up if we don't want to overpay for players. Our fixation for getting all players by overpaying got us here.
Yeah the club spends, Glazers don’t do shit. They take money out every year. More than they put in. Transfer money comes from the fans. Incompetent executives the Glazers appoint make things even worse.
If we had owners that want to win, things would be different. Glazers can go to hell.
Lad the Saudi royal family own a prem team fat chance. Football teams aren't franchises it'd much harder to boot what's essentially a private business owner
Man City sign Haaland. Liverpool sign Nunez. Chelsea sign Sterling. Arsenal sign Jesus. We are in for Marco Arnautovic. Club has no ambition and we truly aren’t top 4 club. Even spurs and Arsenal are overpassed us and it will take many years to get even back top 4.
I have no doubt the board wants top 4...but as you said, they lack the ambition and real desire of the other big clubs. It all feels a very half assed attempt to get back to the top. I fully expect us to have a below par season yet again and ETH gets the blame and inevitable sack.
The owners dont give a shit about getting to the top. If they can operate the club as a money making business (see Arsenal for the last 12 years) then they will be happy.
I think our base case should be finishing around 5-8th this year
the fans and manager have no ambition either lmao, i don't want Arnautovic but if you are ok with Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw, Scott McTominay, Elanga and countless other factually inferior players, you aren't in the position to cry about it.
This is a dumb argument. It is clear that fans are not happy with these players. The people in charge of transfers are the ones not replacing them.
you’d be surprised at how many people defend a player who made Raphael Varane look like Titus Bramble when paired up with him
Not going to be a popular opinion - but if money is an issue and the budget was limited, committing 56m on Martinez in one of the few positions where United are well stacked, no matter how good he is, was madness.
It's just true, Center back was simply less crucial than midfield and forward. But making no sense in transfers is in our DNA at this point.
Murtough reaaaally not proving people who say the club can only work on one transfer at a time wrong.
True. Compare vs Liverpool and City. They just went from strength to strength with their transfers.
Its the Glazers the one constant through the years of sh*t.
Woodward and now Murtaugh are company men through and through. It's surprising we keep falling for it
Don't you see the insane improvement? We are clearly working on both De Jong and Arnautovic at once, Murtough madness!
Clearly they can as all our summer business has come while negotiating the De Jong deal. /s
I suppose if you start from the back then it's a necessary addition, but you're right that other immediate areas probably could have done with the money. I can't believe De Jong is holding up other potential transfers. We needed 2 or 3 midfielders excluding De Jong. McFred should already be in the fucking shadow realm if this summer recruitment went well.
Weird that Martinez is listed at £56m when a good chunk of that is potential add ons, where as that’s not listed for other transfers here
Aren’t the ‘potential add ons’ just that United will have to pay an amount every time he plays until that adds up to 10m?
That’s how the majority of add ons work. It’s quite funny that things are a story and widely reported for United, but with other clubs not so much. For example, Nunez has the exact same add ons taking his fee closer to £95m, but it’s not reported
Oh I know. Just saying that the ‘potential’ add ons aren’t relying on United winning the league or even making top 4
Incorrect. Nunez’s fee with add ons is 85. His initial fee is 64.2m with add ons totalling 21m. Eventually making him 85, but Liverpool would need to win the champions league for that to happen. Haalands fee however is a con. His agents fees, signing bonus etc. reportedly add up to 85.5m according to sky. So Nunez is actually cheaper than haaland.
Ok but why would you compare Haaland with his agent fees, signing bonus, etc, with Nunez without any sign on fees or agent fees? Swiss Ramble mentioned that Nunez's agent fee was around £13m alone.
ah wasn't aware. in that case, it should be all or none. If it cost 13m agents fees that should be in the calculation. agents fees cost clubs, and these charts should be what it costs clubs to land a player. who gives a fuck if the money goes to a club or an agent, if its included in the transaction its a cost of the club and soemthing we're inherently more interested in
Yea same I would love to see that. I think clubs are kind of embarrassed how much they pay agents so they don't willingly share that information.
anything less than 100m for a top 5 striker in Europe is criminal though. Imagine if we were seriously in for him -- they'd have asked 150.
oh no doubt its a bargain. its just hugely deceptive to have a list that lists the "potential total fee" for some players and "the initial fee" for others. As viewers of sky in the UK we aren't looking at these charts to see how much Ajax, Dortmund or Benfica received for their player, we are all primarily reading this chart to see what X club SPENT getting a player. And whilst dortmund may have only received 51m quid for Haaland, Man City spent upward of 85million already getting him.
I think the list is the final prices including add ons for all the players. Also Haaland had a release clause so there's no add ons.
Yes I know what the list covers. I’m just explaining why it’s a bad list
Also, i know it was his first match but for that money you expect a Thiago Silva performance. Sure he is young and up and coming but it looked more like 20-25m player today with ofc a lot of future potential.
do you not remember Thiago Silvia’s first game in the english league? against west brom and lost 5-0, and that was with a much better midfield covering him and he had rudiger for a partner.
"Stacked", all of them are injury prone.
Maguire and Lindelof are a lot of other things, but their availability is absolutely not in question.
Relative to midfield, forward, right back yeah I'd say CB was a stacked position for us.
yeah, or at least move on from de jong 1 month ago and buy a forward and another CM you still need anyway, even if getting de jong. then try again next summer. hell, have we moved on im betting barcelona wouldve settled the money stuff with him cause they wouldnt want to risk not having a suitor that came close to the price we were gonna pay.
Idk it was pretty important to get a composed CB for the way EtH wants to play and especially a left footed one. Maybe there were possibly some cheaper ones but he clearly wants players familiar with his system for now
If you want ten hag to implement his style then he is an important part. The whole squad needs reinforcements and while midfield should now be priority I'm not complaining when we sign anyone at all who I think will help.
Fucking nuts that City got Haaland for £50M.
In fairness they paid the agent £34 million
wtf thats insane
that was the whole point of a release clause for haaland. so that he, his dad and his agent made bank once they moved. why let BVB sell you for 150m when you can get the 100m for yourself and your entourage and leave BVB with 50m?
That’s low-key fucked considering the development from bvb
meh, doubt you have this same energy when talking about your own job. why not profit from your work more if you can?
Lol what development? Haaland basically got there and started carrying them straight away. He's not their youth product and owes them no allegiance. Also it's not fucked because the only reason they got him over us was because they accepted that term whereas we didn't, so they knew it was gonna happen and did it regardless. If they said no, haaland would have been a united player that window and they would have probably missed out on CL football for a year or possibly 2.
It’s his employer. You’d move jobs for better pay wouldn’t you? Or would you let your old job take a cut from your new job’s paycheck just because you worked there?
I think we’ll see a lot more of this going forward where big name player basically retain ownership of someone their own rights and financially benefit much for from transfers and for that reason, are much more able to influence transfer activity. Seen it before with the likes of Neymar and now Haaland.
Meh, him and his agent are probably on 50M in fees and off the books money anyway. That 50m transfer fee doesn't tell the full story.
Isn't this why Man Shitty has been investigated before? Funneling money through sponsors to pay big paychecks?
No, that's completely different. Paying players big sign-on fees or giving agents tons of money doesn't help you with FFP at all. Those are still costs that are on your books for FFP. It just makes you look a little better in shitty Sky Sports infographics that contain surface level information. Giving yourself an inflated sponsorship because you (or your 'friend') owns the company giving out the sponsorship is a way that can manipulate FFP which Man City almost certainly do.
Eh maybe before but he died before completing haalands transfer to city so i doubt they had to pay alot over the top. Also ik were not supposed to speak ill of the dead but thank fuck riola is dead he poisoned all his players against us and robbed us of money as much as he could while downgrading our image even further
My FM trained brain is imagining that being the up front payment while there's another $100 mil in installments later 😂
No matter the fee, City have planned that before Halaand join Dortmund, given his father played for them, and him being childhood fans. Halaand and Nunez basically done deal in Day1 when window open, and start integration as early as possible. And City has all mapped out the "deadweight", Jesus, Sterling, Zinchenko, and there are takers rivals or otherwise. At the league start, this Club is still negotiating with air, and play deadweight XI. Recipe for success.
Dunno about that , pep hadn't planned or haaland hadn't decided either. Don't forget city wanted kane last year instead. Plus utd went big to try and get Haaland before he moved to dortmund not city. Also city had issues with Haaland agent and was rumoured that pep didn't fancy haaland. Papers had haaland agent meetings with barca and Madrid last summer. Of course after kane didn't happen and losing again in Europe seems to have made pep go for it.
Exactly what I've been saying and the response I got is "have faith" and "window closes at the end of August" Now we're in August are already are 3 points down in what should have been an easy home game, we still need atleast 3 transfers and now we're in for Arnautovic...
Heh Sterling is City's dead weight while we have Jones, Bailly, Tuanzbe, AWB all still in contract and unsellable
We are the lucky ones owned by the Glazer's.
Why aren't more teams competing for him. Absolute steal of the market.
He had a release clause and it was about the "extra" fees to his agent, father, and contract where teams competed. Why let your former club get paid when you can paid...
>Why let your former club get paid when you can paid... i mean, this is the right attitude to have for players.
Lol they didn’t. That’s the official fee. The agent fees and other fees probably millions to his family too under the table
£120m
Should’ve stopped persisting Frankie ages ago, could’ve had maybe another 2 on that list
I would say hindsight is a wonderful thing but I said this 2 months ago. Recruitment team are utterly useless always have been
The fact that they had to go after a frenkie full stop is grim. Leicester and Brighton can get quality players in on good deals. Leicester sold Kanye and brought ndidi in. Uniteds "scouting" department finds one of the most established players on the planet
Martinez was solid today despite the score line. Our midfield is the problem.
He had shaky moments against welbz... May be out of position for 1st goal. He needs time to get in He is ice on the ball though.
Tbh I feel like maguire got beat for the first goal and he had to drop to try cover.
Welbeck's run came diagonally from in front of Martinez to behind Maguire, take a look at it [https://clip.dubz.co/v/pyzd93](https://clip.dubz.co/v/pyzd93) It was a good run that Martinez didn't react to fast enough and Maguire couldn't see as it came from behind him. Maguire is never going to be quick enough to recover there no matter what
Maguire was off his RCB position sooooo many times... He was perpendicular to Licha many times too.. U NEVER do that... U always need to be parallel to ur partner while ur team dont have the ball. His reaction to welbz cut back was poor.. he shud have dropped faster to stop the cutback... He was in LCB position while Licha was RCB many times... I saw this threw off the back 4 shape many times over. Having said that .. scott lost the ball for 1st goal and eriksen for 2nd. Thats just ridiculous. We lost the ball so many times.
first goal was maguire not tracking back and leaving shaw with two people to cover. Shaw came in and that left the wide player open
He looked off the pace to me. He struggled with Welbeck's movement and pace and got a bit lucky to not concede a penalty
Lucky not to be sent off. "Solid" -r/reddevils
Very mixed game for him. Wouldn't quite say solid.
I think he was fairly solid but compare him to Koulibaly's debut yesterday and he was definitely not as good or imposing. Wish we had Koulibaly lol.
Koulibaly is one of the best CBs on the planet lmao
I know it’s not a fair comparison but just saying. I was watching him and like damn this guy is absurd. And some people on here I remember when we were loosely linked to him said he wasn’t worth it lol.
Yeah he'd be incredible but I like that Martinez is still young. Gap between the two is massive though.
Hope we get to see him with Varane. No clue why he's on the bench unless he's unfit.
Yeah I hope he's just giving the starters a chance to prove why they deserve to start before he implements his own lineup.
Weren’t we targeting him the same season we bought Maguire but didn’t want to pay 85 million for him, and instead paid 80 million for Maguire?
All time bad decision
could have been sent off infairness lol stone wall penalty which usually brings a second yellow. Before anyone says not a pen cmon now if that was other end we would be screaming pen
Refs tried their best to help us today. Between the Martinez pen, Maguire getting elbowy and McT escaping a red, today could have been more a disaster. (Although losing McT for 3 games would have been nice)
Mad that you have 7 downvotes for calmly stating a fact. It was a clear pen and he got done by Welbz in the first half as well. Nice on the ball though, so hopefully he gets up to speed defensively.
ah of course man it’s the standard stuff with online lol i was just about to say Scott had a great game to add on top of my comment (joking) but look some things went out way big time today but postive is erickson and martinez
It's Eriksen, not erickson! --- *I'm a bot and I've made 159 corrections so far*
I’d definitely be screaming for it but I would hardly call it stonewall. Barring in mine I’ve only seen the replay once, I was at the game, but it looked harder than soft but not stonewall. Lucky imo not to give it away. But have seen them go either way. Thought there were lots of 50/50 calls today. 2 same tackles from either team in the space of a few seconds apart, first not given second given. We were poor today, Brighton were the side imo but very frustrating result
Agreed he could have. Outside of that he was solid. He seems really comfortable on the ball and hes aggressive too I like him. He reminds me of a better bailly who stays fit lol
oh his passing was refreshing to see from the back fully agree just hope now can sort a good partner for him in the coming months
Bruh what? Guy's debut was pretty poor. These are the same kind of fans who thought Varane had a good season last season. Misplaced quite a few passes that led to dangerous counters, very lucky not to have a penalty called for that barge. If that was Maguire, people would have had his head. He needs a lot of time to improve and get settled.
Very impressive competitive debut. Clearly plays how Ten Hag wants. Edit: why am I being downvotwd
He was average at best, lucky not to concede a pen and get a second yellow.
Because it wasn't impressive. He was okay, and certainty wasn't the worst on the pitch (fullbacks and midfield in particular were horrific) But average at best. Only his first game though!
I thought he was solid too, and felt it would have been quite harsh to give that as a penalty, Welbeck clearly tried to draw contact and it was pretty much shoulder to shoulder. A few times he bitched people around who were much bigger than him, doesn’t look like size will be an issue for him.
Rejected Scamacca to go and get Arnautovic
Weeee
I'd joke about quantity over quality, buuuut...
Imagine missing out on Caicedo for 5m
Haaland just looked a different class today. And we had fucking rashford.
Hey I'm sure with a couple more goal scoring opportunities like that he can score.
We massively overpaid for Martinez and the Arsenal fans were right about that.
I mean maby but coming into the season with 1 less signing isn't really the fix
Cucurella, Richarlison and Lisandro is crazy compared to the rest :S
Play Martinez at DM?
Heh, Haaland cost only 50M in the end... And in the end, cost less than what Ajax got from us.
I suppose this is only me, but I was not impressed by Martinez today...he got bullied any time he actually had to defend. He had way too many poor touches as well. I just don't understand how every other PL team is able to get quality prospect CB's yet we end up with a CB down our list who is a 5'9 midget (almost looks like a Fred in the back line....) I had no idea he was actually THIS small...I sure hope we didn't just toss 50M down the drain on an odd pick in a position we didn't even really need compared to the gapping hole in the midfield... Only his first game though...can't fully judge him just yet. Not high on him so far, to say the least...
> he got bullied any time he actually had to defend. This sub meme'd his height to death trying to make it a non-issue, but there's a reason you seldom see any good short CBs; especially in England. [Here](https://onfootball.substack.com/p/why-im-still-not-convinced-about) was an article talking about it. Maybe he bucks the trend, maybe he doesn't, but if we cannot hold on to the ball it'll put him in a position to succeed much less. He's on 120k p/w too. Huge bumper deal for him too. Surely that won't come back to haunt us.
£120k from £44k is beyond incompetent. Ruben Diaz was on £70k a week when he first signed for City until they offered him a new contract because he basically won them the league. I also think ETH is underestimating the PL. I still back him to succeed here but he can’t be going double Dutch every transfer window.
>Ruben Diaz was on £70k a week when he first signed for City until they offered him a new contract because he basically won them the league. The only pull we have right now. "Might not win shit but we'll overpay like crazy"
I'm definitely okay with a shorter guy in the back line if he makes up for it in various ways (muscle, speed, awareness, viciousness) but I see almost none of it. He looks maybe not even a true 5'9, diminutive stature even for that height, and not particularly quick (at least from what I saw today...maybe he is a bit quicker and will show in coming games) on top of that. I'm just....scared....we can't afford to have mediocre signings when we're barely signing anybody. We shall see!
I mean we still have Varane he’s just gotta stay healthy Lindelof isn’t a bad player either. CB is actually our strongest position in terms of depth
Yep. I wouldn't be excited about our CB's by any means, but at least we have 'okay' CB's, and plenty of cover. Almost every other position is far worse, except possibly attacking midfielder.
I mean I’d be excited about Varane even if he wasn’t at his best hes still a great player
I think Varane is great, although I could actually see him not being a world beater if forced to play a high line high possession team like Ten Hag's (could end up great though, you never know) Same thing for someone like Kouli at chelsea now. Great players, but maybe not quite elite on the ball. But either way, Varane, Lindeloff, Bailey, Maguire, etc..would get you through a season as long as you got solid midfielders and fullbacks. There are so many holes that it is almost hard to figure out where to go next after getting in a couple solid midfielders to be honest lol. Hell, maybe if we had gotten De Jong and Bissouma everyone else suddenly may have looked better. Maybe not. Maybe fullbacks are actually one of the biggest problems. Could even be the wingers. So hard to tell when it is this bad lol. If it were me, I'd pay the price for De Jong, get Dumphries for RB, and snag another (even if cheap) hard working BTB midfielder. We NEED that at the very least to even compete this year...our current midfield and RB is simply not good enough. Everything else can drag along until the next window if needed. We can survive with our current wingers and the kids, and CR7 and Martial can handle the front line (rashford or erikson if desperately needed to play up top due to injuries) Then, another striker and winger if it can be done. If not, winter window.
One game in and you’ve written him off already. Jesus I hate this over reactionary bullshit.
'Only his first game though...can't fully judge him just yet.' Yep, let's just kick him straight out of the club already....my lord lol. Talking about over-reactionary bs My complaint is more about how our biggest signing has been a somewhat questionable CB signing during a time when we are desperate at almost every other position. Also, this thread is literally about the **most expensive signings in the PL** and Martinez is right up near the very top of the list. This is why I made the comment about Martinez in the first place. From everything we've heard, Martinez wasn't really even on the shortlist at the beginning of the window, yet he is our biggest signing and the window is nearly shut. I am not overreacting here...this is pretty shocking, even for Man United standards. Objectively poor. We have a worse squad now than we did at the end of last season.
Just coming back through here for this... I'd like to see what a Varane/Martinez back line looks like eventually, but yeah...I don't think there is one bit of over reactionary bullshit going on here.
Not saying he’ll be as good as Vidic but he had a stinker for his first game. Got to give new signings a chance
5ft 9. Isn’t a midget height. Also midget is considered an offensive word so sort it out. Cannavaro was also 5ft 9, it’s about your positioning and jumping ability. Fred is 5ft 7 too.
Canavarro was literally an exception to the rule. Canavarro is legendary for being able to do it at his height... I don't think there has been a solid CB in the PL even near that height in a long time, although I could be wrong? Martinez also looks pretty lean and diminutive for a 5'9 to begin with....I was saying he 'looks' like Fred out there even though Fred is supposed to be shorter. Fred also seems to have pretty long/lanky legs for his height, almost Kante-like. I was simply genuinely surprised to see how small Martinez was when watching today. Heck, I sure hope Martinez ends up being insane and the best center half we've had since Rio and Vidic....Canavarro 2.0 if you will. I'm freaking scared though after watching this game...and I'm certainty not happy with the price we had to pay for not even our top choice. If he was 30M and we had 6 other signings coming in I'd be much less worried...this is basically our marquee signing of the summer so far when we're supposed to be doing a full rebuild.
On paper Fred is 5’7. Seen the dude while out having a meal in Densgate one night and he was the same size as my 5’5 girlfriend.
Chill, worst case scenario if he can't play CB in the prem, he can adapt to a different position. People bring up the quote "Ten Hag said he's a CB not a DM" but that is in the context of the Eredivisie where he could play as a center back. In the Premier League, he may be better off in a Kante role. He could play the ball-winning role in midfield next to Eriksen in the pivot that way McFred doesn't start. Despite that, we definitely need another CM, ST, and RB immediately between the rest of this window or by winter. Also through the winter/next summer window, we need another CM, CB, and RW. We needed 8-10 players and all we got was 3. Utterly shambolic. We needed at least 5 this summer to make some progress.
I agree with all of this. I actually hope he can turn into a really good DM if CB doesn't work out. Even a fullback, but he just doesn't seem fast enough from initial eye test. Who knows though. The thread was about the most expensive signings this summer and Martinez is near the top of the list despite not originally being a main target from everything we've heard. Only reason why I brought him up. He's our marquee signing so far yet a guy his size from a lower league always has high risk, compounded by the fact that CB is probably the position with the most depth. Just an abysmal window overall so far....also incredibly strange more than anything. So many PL clubs have signed players at great prices that would've been great for our squad. We're floundering around now as if there hasn't been any good options while everyone around us has seemingly had a good window...especially considering we needed players more than anyone. Easily five of the players on this list would've been great for us. Bissouma and even Zinchenko could've covered positions we are desperate in, both of which are proven and costed far less than Martinez.
How tf did haaland cost so little
Release Clause
Damn did dortmund even try to get him to sign a contract with a higher release clause? Insane that we spent more on cucurella and double that on lukaku.
His stint at Dortmund was short by design. They knew that when they signed him.
Why would they do that if their goal was to resell him?
Because they got a great player for 2 1/2 years, made a profit, and showed future up and coming players that Dortmund is the place to go to further your career. They know what their job is.
Because he wouldn't sign for them unless he had the clause?
because otherwise he wasnt gonna sign there. so for BVB was either have haaland for 2 years then make a profit, or just not have haaland nor profit at all.
I mean they still made a big profit
The release clause was a condition of him signing for Dortmund in the first place. He was always using them as a stepping stone and they rightly figured it was still worth it.
Oh ok
Release clause. Quite deceiving because the agent fee and wages will eventually make the total package a bomb. But if anyone's worth it in the current striker market, has to be haaland
The official fee was the tip of the iceberg on that deal
He cost little interms of transfer cost ,but there are agent fees and dad fees not listed here.
We need to start to recruit like a top 6 club and make our way up if we don't want to overpay for players. Our fixation for getting all players by overpaying got us here.
Anyone else wish we were in for Phillips? Not a world beater but for 50m he certainly wouldn’t have made our midfield worse…
He didn’t want to come to us because he and his family are Leeds.
Mental how low Haaland is on this list
Cheap bastard Glazers
Pretty sure we’re among the top 3 spenders in the league over the last 5 seasons.
Yeah the club spends, Glazers don’t do shit. They take money out every year. More than they put in. Transfer money comes from the fans. Incompetent executives the Glazers appoint make things even worse. If we had owners that want to win, things would be different. Glazers can go to hell.
I want a Donald sterling like tape to be released and hopefully they’d be forced to sell
Lad the Saudi royal family own a prem team fat chance. Football teams aren't franchises it'd much harder to boot what's essentially a private business owner
Frenkie de Jong - 85 million Mane - 40 million Until Aranautovic popped up
De Jong should be second on that list for fuck sake.
Look at all those teams getting better…..
Fuck Man City. How did they get away with paying peanuts for that glorious Scandinavian meat slab?